Calls to Elements

Timeless prayers to nature, Calls to Elements are one of the last remnants of Giraunism in Menicea before Nelandreism took over.
Twice a year, at the beginning of the warm and cold seasons, gérouns gather to sing, dance, and feast.

Origins, meaning

Calls to Elements are inherent to Giraunism, which revolved around Giraun, the god of creation, nature, and fate. By celebrating nature, Gérouns pray for Giraun to be clement and keep elements harnessed. They pray for good harvests, warm winters, and good hunts.
The roots of Giraunism are from an era long forgotten by Meniceans, and so are the origins of the Calls. The Clan War left Menicea's History as a blank page, which became the Golden Age that everyone knows.
Yet, while Nelandreism became the center of attention two hundred years ago, everyone refused to leave the Calls behind.

Ceremony

Calls to elements can take a whole day to unfold. Work starts early in the morning or even the day before to prepare the food and offerings. Dancers, who have been preparing for months, start to rehearse one last time before the spectacle.
Calls must take place in the wild. People will find a deserted area and build a temporary stage for artists to perform. Many tables and chairs are spread around the stage, where people will have their meals and drinks together.
Past that, the content of the ceremony varies with the season itself.

Warmth Dance

When celebrating the arrival of the warm season, Calls revolve around dances and art using fire.
The warm season is the moment to work outside, and since manual work is usually left to men, the Warmth Dance is performed by men as well.
Fire dancers and fire eaters perform sumptuous shows, juggling with torches and dancing with fire.
Alongside dancing, a small choral sings the "Grasp of the Sun," a song about the might of summer storms, heat, and the awakening of nature during spring.
Performers dance and sing wearing the masks of fire, wind, fate, and forest.

Frost Choral

As the cold season approaches, many Menicean women learn the "Caress of the moon," a beautiful song filled with harmonics.
Winter is mostly spent indoors, reading, which makes it the best time to learn and share. Intellectual activities are associated with women within the Menicean culture, so the Frost Choral is about them.
The Choral relies on many wind and string instruments to accompany the songs. Acrobats dance around the performers, swinging and jumping in the air to represent the winter winds.
Performers wear the masks of wind, water, fate, and home.

After festivities are done and people start to scatter on their way back home, the organizers start packing everything up. Any food leftovers will be carefully left in a single place as an offering to Giraun.

Gone is winter, gone is winter (Hu!)
Flowers bloom and crops grow
Fiery skies and storms await (Hu!)
Welcome the warmth and welcome work
For once again, the world's awake! (HU!)

- Warmth Season's call, Chorus